Solar Plane's Ocean-Crossing Voyage Aborted Due to Weather

The pilot of a solar-powered airplane had to abort his planned flight across the Pacific Ocean and land in Japan due to bad weather, officials said.

Swiss pilot André Borschberg took off in the ultra-lightweight aircraft, called Solar Impulse 2, from Nanjing, China, on Sunday (May 31), en route to Hawaii. The voyage across the ocean, which is part of an attempt to fly around the world in the solar-powered craft, was expected to last six days. However, Borschberg was forced to land the aircraft at Japan's Nagoya Airfield this morning (June 1) because of poor weather conditions.

"Unfortunately, the current weather window to reach Hawaii has closed. The cold front is too dangerous to cross," officials said in an update posted on the Solar Impulse website.